Christina urges Texas Baptists not to forget their first love

MCALLEN—Craig Christina, associate executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, exhorted messengers to the BGCT annual meeting to remember and remain unified by their first love: Jesus.

“My message for us tonight is simply this,” said Christina, who has served as acting executive director since David Hardage retired at the end of 2022. “Do not forsake our first love.”

Drawing from Revelation 2, Christina challenged Texas Baptists to continue their hard work, perseverance and desire for holiness. But, just as Christ warned the church in Ephesus, he urged them not to forsake their first love.

“Is it possible we can become so focused on doctrinal purity and correctness and agreeing 100 percent with every jot and tittle of interpretation that we forget about our love relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? That we forget about our love relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ? That we forget about our passion for reaching the lost? It’s possible,” he said.

Reasons to celebrate

Christina said Texas Baptists are in “such a good place right now as a convention because we have kept first things first. We’re not perfect. We have our challenges, but let me brag on you for a moment.”

He highlighted the BGCT’s diversity, with Anglo, Hispanic, Black, multicultural, Korean, African, Chinese, Burmese, Vietnamese, Filipino and cowboy churches. The Center for Cultural Engagement has ministry offices to help each of those affinity groups, he noted.

The Center for Ministerial Health has liaisons to aid bivocational ministers and the churches they serve. About 60 percent of Texas Baptists’ churches have bivocational pastors, he noted.

Texas Baptists are passionate about starting churches, with 200 in the church-starting process, Christina reported. Since 2016, Texas Baptists have planted 37 churches outside Texas, he added.

Jonathan Smith, director of Church Health Strategy, has led consultations with 630 churches and trained more than 100 in church revitalization strategy.

Christina highlighted Texas Baptists’ missions involvement, as well, including the River Ministry along the border with Mexico and the Missionary Adoption Program.

He pointed to Texas Baptists’ presence on 137 college campuses around the state through the Center for Collegiate Ministry, which results in about 1,000 college students coming to Christ each year.

He cited the example of Robert Rueda, who leads the Baptist Student Ministries at UT Rio Grande Valley and Texas A&M Higher Education Center at McAllen, who started cafes on both campuses to battle food insecurity. BSM students volunteer to serve.

“They’re not just feeding people sandwiches,” Christina said. “They’re feeding them the bread of life.”

Connected by blood and love

Despite those and other highlights, Christina cautioned Baptists historically have been “easily distracted from the main thing.”

“The question we have to ask ourselves is this,” he said. “Can we hold to the fundamentals of the faith, agree to keep the main things the main things, but agree to disagree on secondary and tertiary issues and still be one? Can we? We can if we keep our first love.”

Christina noted the diversity in his family, who recently got together for a weekend at Port Aransas. In spite of different vocations, locations and views on politics and religion, two things keep the family together—blood and love.

“Texas Baptists, we are the family of God,” Christina said. “What keeps us together? Two things—blood and love. The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, and our love for the Lord and one another and reaching the lost for Jesus. God is doing amazing things through Texas Baptists, but there’s still so much more to be done.

“In a world where people are fragmenting and dividing and drawing the circle smaller and smaller on what makes a good Baptist. … let’s not become like Ephesus. Let’s work hard. Let’s persevere. Let’s call sin ‘sin.’ But let’s keep our first love for Jesus until all people come to know him.”